


Fever Reality

by Absolutely_Barbaric



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Awkward Kissing, Cold, Fever, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Shiro is dumb and Matt is stupid, Whump, sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 12:02:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14894286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absolutely_Barbaric/pseuds/Absolutely_Barbaric
Summary: They say you should sweat out a fever. With Shiro taking care of him, Matt's fever will be gone in no time.





	Fever Reality

Matthew Holt was one of the few among his peers to enjoy a good academic challenge. Today it was figuring out how to finish his lab report with his eyes closed.

 

 

Strategically, he chose to tackle his homework in the study lounge where he would not be tempted to crawl into bed or get distracted in front of the others. But clever as his plan was, he wound up drifting off onto the palm of his hand at his cheek instead, head nodding every few minutes to the obvious attention of four remaining students who were already wrapping up to get some sleep. After all, it was past eleven. The lights had gone out a full hour ago.

 

 

Every time he brought his mind back to awareness, it became a painful struggle against his heavy eyelids to open up and look at what he wrote down so far, which was somewhere in between Kharosthi and just plain bad handwriting. The only thing he could decipher before his eyes fell shut again was a frowny face that he didn’t have the energy to wonder why he wrote. He’d been here for three hours now and accomplished 1/8th of what he would have in one. Even then, he was going to have to proof read before turning it in.

 

 

This was getting to be a challenge he might have to give up on.

 

 

Whether or not to wake him became a hushed, heated debate among the three that had come to study together- and ended up spending the last hour gossiping about how someone could actually fall asleep in such a stiff chair- but the fourth remained rigidly stood against a nearby column, watching in keen silence until eventually, it was decided among the others that he would probably wake up on his own, and they ought to head back to their own rooms.

 

 

Alone together in the vast expanse of the hall’s second floor, he approached Matt and put a hand on his shoulder, gently shaking it to rouse him.

 

 

“Yeah, ‘m getting up, alright…?” Matt wiped a spot of drool from the corner of his lips, sleepily grabbing around the table for his glasses before he realized they were still on. He lifted them and rubbed his eyes, blinked twice, and furthermore realized that of all people, this was Shiro he was talking to.

 

 

“Holy crap-” His chair screeched out behind him after he jumped up, desperately clinging to the table to hold him steady and all the while trying to look like he could stand like a normal person. That was a lot harder to do when he consciously thought about it. “Sorry, I didn’t- I thought you were a friend- Did you need something? I can get you something.” God, that sounded like he was offering him drugs. Or did it? He kind of felt like he was still half-dreaming, unable to make sense of words or reality. Shiro didn’t seem to be looking at him like he was a bumbling idiot yet, though maybe he was confusing that, too.

 

 

 _Shiro._  He was way too respectable to be standing here right now, listening to Matt blubber on like an imbecile. Confident, collected and kind, it was far beneath his responsibility to have to wake up dozing students in the study lounge, yet completely expected that he would bother to. Matt flushed, modestly turning his head to look at literally anything else. “Sorry,” he mumbled, “Kinda...had a long day, I guess.”

 

 

“That’s just what I was about to ask you.”

 

 

Shiro’s smile was intimidating to him in the strangest of ways. So genuine and comforting, but to receive a look like that from a guy he definitely shouldn’t be troubling...He never fought so hard not to yawn in all his life. “You’ve been coughing so much, I thought you might be getting sick.”

 

 

Was he coughing earlier? It made sense, since his throat felt so raw and scratchy. He supposed on top of everything- the headache, the ache in the rest of his muscles, the fatigue- he just didn’t even notice. Now he could only hope that he remembered to cover his mouth.

 

 

“Nope, definitely not sick. Just got something stuck in my throat earlier, that’s all. My- My lab report’s done, so I’m gonna turn in for the night, but thank you for…”

 

 

It had to be his fried brain making it appear like Shiro was getting closer. He couldn’t be, right? Why would he be? Matt was just staring at him at this point, probably not such a good idea in an endeavor to act normal, and then at the right hand he was raising up and slowly bringing even closer.

 

 

Concealing his yawn was hard enough, but the surprised sound that could only be defined as a verbal question mark was impossible to hide when he felt the palm of Shiro’s hand ever so softly gracing his forehead, then sliding down to his cheek, his neck...His eyes were so focused while Matt’s were as wide as could be, staring back into them, feeling himself slip away from the rest of his body so fast it was unbearable. His chest was ready to burst- surely he just had to cough again. Or his heart was going to explode, one of the two. Could people his age even have heart attacks?

 

 

_“Matt, you’re really hot…”_

 

 

Well, that had done it. He was too exhausted for this, too lightheaded to begin with, and now that he was pretty sure his heart actually did just explode inside his chest, he couldn’t stand on his feet anymore.

 

 

Shiro was there as soon as his knees buckled, trying to heave him back up by the shirt sleeves at first before he managed a good grip on his shoulders and knelt down gradually with him. After working so hard just to finish one report on time, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that his body would cave, but it caught Shiro off guard nonetheless. No matter how roughly he shook Matt’s shoulder or how loud he called his name, all he got in return was the fluttering of his eyes and then nothing again.

 

 

For a moment he just knelt there, holding Matt up like a ragdoll, and thought about what he was supposed to do here. He was breathing fine, pulse a little quick still...There was no need to drag him to a hospital twenty minutes away when all he needed was a good rest in an actual bed.

 

 

At a time like this, it was a good thing his own room was only one floor up from here, and that Matt was so lightweight.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Interestingly enough, it didn’t take more than half an hour for Matt to open his eyes again, then shut them at the soft lamp light that still felt so invading. Perhaps by the sheer willpower of his unconscious brain to wake up and apologize for falling asleep on Shiro- come to think of it, where was he?

 

 

And where was _this?_  It looked strikingly similar to his bedroom, but everything was rearranged in a way that only felt distantly familiar. Try as he might to look around for an explanation, his head hurt too much to move in any degree and he couldn’t make sense of it anyhow. He just felt so  _tired,_  it almost made him want to laugh at himself.  _‘Definitely not sick’_...He was dreadfully sick, having always been the easiest in the family to catch colds and the worst at fighting them off. Probably because he didn’t really try.

 

 

Just as he was about to pass it off as another dream and fall back asleep again, a soft voice drew him right back into reality.

 

 

“You alright, Matt?”

 

 

Found him.

 

 

Matt’s attention snapped to the border of where the lamp light began to fade, finding the broad-shouldered figure he missed reclining in a chair.

 

 

That was unmistakably Shiro. Who didn’t have access to his room, so this bedroom had to belong to…

 

 

To Shiro.

 

 

In other words, he was sleeping in Shiro’s bed. While Shiro watched him sleep. Which would have been creepy, if it was anyone else and if he wasn’t so focused that he was  _in Shiro’s bed,_  which meant Shiro _brought_ him here, which meant- For the sake of all things holy, that name didn’t even sound like a real word anymore.

 

 

“Sorry-” That was the first and only word Matt could get out, despite not fully knowing what he was apologizing for. It was just so wildly unbelievable, sleeping in the bed of such a prestigious, high-achieving, absolutely stunning student, who he only meant stunning in an academic way, as well as in his leadership and his looks. Goddamnit, his looks. He was _looking_ at him, like he didn’t know what to say. Matt anxiously ran his hand through his hair and found that it was utterly damp with sweat, as was his- Shiro’s- pillow. That had to be disgusting.

 

 

“Don’t worry about it. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

 

 

His hand paused. They were... _acquaintances,_  surely, as were the rest of his classmates, but Shiro thought of them as friends? He supposed they’d gotten awfully close during a month long project last semester, but all the same...It just amazed him. He knew he was equally one of the highest scoring students and by now a certified teacher’s pet, yet because Shiro was someone he admired so much, it all seemed so...little, compared to him. Everything seemed little compared to him. The guy was huge.

 

 

“Yeah,” Matt said after a few voice clearings, “Yeah, we’re friends. Geez, my throat is gonna kill me…”

 

 

“Here.”

 

 

As expected, Shiro was prepared with a handful of cherry lozenges just for his sake. Carefully, Matt picked up two and popped them into his mouth, wondering amidst the utter fatigue of his mind if he should just give in to Shiro’s kindness and stay here until he could at least get up and go back to his own room. It would be just as rude to get up and run after he bothered to bring him here, wouldn’t it? And speaking of that…

 

 

“How did you…?”

 

 

It wasn’t a mystery what he was trying to say. Shiro cracked a grin, gesturing over his shoulders.

 

 

“Piggyback. You’re pretty light, you know that?”

 

 

Matt’s cheeks were catching on fire again. It didn’t help that he was an obvious blusher, since Shiro only got closer again when he noticed it.

 

 

This kind of touch- He had to be dreaming. Shiro was brushing back his hair so  _intimately_  that he could feel his fingernails grazing his temple, and all he could do was sit there trying to not look awestruck while they sat there in silence again, inches away, ridiculously close as an actual couple would be. But even after painfully struggling to appear calm, Matt was disappointed when he pulled away, almost ashamed when Shiro seemed dissatisfied.

 

 

“I guess it hasn’t been long enough for your temperature to change. How long ago did you start feeling sick?”

 

 

“Only this morning,” Matt answered under his breath. It boggled his mind that even he could have gotten so much worse over such little time. “It’s pretty common in the winter. Shiro- It’s late, isn’t it? You’ll be tired for class tomorrow.”

 

 

Shiro raised an eyebrow, leaving Matt to wonder exactly what confused him.

 

 

“It’s Saturday night. We don’t have class until Monday.”

 

 

So that was it. He exhausted himself over that report for nothing.

 

 

Seeing his internal annoyance, Shiro gave him another smile as soft as the lamp light, only this one Matt could look at all night long, and turned his back for the desk by the window. Whatever he was retrieving, at least it wasn’t as intimate as having him all in his face. Matt relaxed into the mattress a little and closed his eyes.

 

 

After the sound of a lid cracking open, he could not mistake the scent of VapoRub and suddenly, he was not relaxed anymore.

 

 

Just as he opened his mouth, Shiro was already saying something along the lines of “Can you unbutton your shirt?” and Matt thought for a second that he would faint again lying down. His hands flew to stop him, his chest rising and falling rapidly while Shiro stared at him like this was supposed to be the most normal, natural thing in the world. He almost hated him for that.

 

 

“I-I can do that myself, can’t I?” There was no reason to ask like a child. Damn it, he was an adult. “I can do that myself.”

 

 

“You’d have to get up and wash your hands,” Shiro pointed out.

 

 

Damn everything.

 

 

Well, he couldn’t say he wasn’t selfishly pleased somewhere deep down inside. He relied on the cold of the VapoRub to explain away his stone-like tension and on his dizzying exhaustion to make him pretend he didn’t have his shirt unbuttoned, and that Shiro’s hands were on his chest, and that he better stop thinking about it now because he was starting to breathe heavy again-

 

 

“Are you okay? Do you need to sit up?”

 

 

Damn it all to hell, he noticed.

 

 

“Gee,” Matt forced out a laugh in his unsturdy attempt to sit upright, “I thought this was supposed to help me breathe easier.” Shiro’s awkward laugh along with him started to make it feel like it actually was funny, and soon enough, he really was laughing. This was ridiculous, after all.

 

 

He was in love with him.

 

 

“Shiro,” Matt wheezed, wiping a laughter-forced tear from the corner of his eye. “Do you do this for all our classmates?”

 

 

“No,” said Shiro, laughter still bubbling from him, “Nobody’s ever passed out on me before.”

 

 

“After you got all close to me!” Matt exclaimed.

 

 

Shiro was starting to go a little stiff, but Matt was in such a feverish euphoria that he just didn’t notice or care anymore. It was true, anyways. People didn’t get close to each other like that as acquaintances. Or as friends.

 

 

“Shiro?”

 

 

His voice was so raspy and worn, but it had every bit of Shiro’s attention.

 

 

“Yeah…?”

 

 

“I like you.”

 

 

Shiro went very still. Matt was chuckling again, heavy and motionless on the bed aside from the quivering of his shoulders and twitch of his grin, but Shiro continued to sit still and watched him wordlessly. When he thought about it...Even if Matt was out of it, it wasn’t like he didn’t already know.

 

 

It really wasn’t like he didn’t know, more like he was pretending not to. For the sake of being wrong, for the sake of assuming and then making him uncomfortable, he knew the truth was that he just hadn’t let himself think about it. Well, now he had no choice but to think about it. Matt’s fit of giggles was quieting, and he was starting to look at him with eyes that needed an answer, or someone to just say something already.

 

 

Shiro was coming closer again. He never knew what to do, so this time, he just relaxed and waited.

 

 

By now, Matt knew for sure that it was a dream. A  _really_  awesome one, and really vivid at that, but the sensation of Shiro’s lips against his own were only an illusion, he firmly believed that. He wasn’t even nervous. He just moved into the imaginary kiss, letting his fingers dance behind Shiro’s neck and grinning wider, certain that if this were real, there was no way he would shiver like that. There was this palpable energy of wanting to go so much further, but dream-Shiro was realistic as ever, pulling away after a bit and clearing his throat with a muttered, “You should get some rest.”

 

 

“Right,” Matt sighed. “One more?”

 

 

“You should- _really_  get some rest,” Shiro was slowly starting to turn bright red, swiftly turned away from Matt, who readjusted himself and lay back down onto his side, smile brimming with fondness.

 

 

He wished he could have stayed in this dream longer, but it was insane how fast sleep overcame him. There was simply no way to keep his heavy eyelids open any longer, despite seeing Shiro turn back to face him. He was trying to say something, something far distant and fuzzy now...It was a good dream while it lasted.

 

 

With Matt out cold again, Shiro simply sat there and thought yet again about what he should do with him, only this time it was a little more desperate. All he could do was wonder what he would say, once Matt woke up again.


End file.
